


The Sisterhood

by LizBee



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen, Secret Paternity, Toph is a great big liar, past Toph/Zuko/Mai, secret royal bastards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 07:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4696880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizBee/pseuds/LizBee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lin wants something Izumi can't give her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sisterhood

**Author's Note:**

> So the idea that Zuko is Lin's father started out as a joke, and then I kind of fell in love with the idea, and now I can't see it any other way.

The moment she stepped off the royal airship, Fire Lord Izumi, in defiance of protocol and family tradition, threw her arms around Chief Beifong.

There was a small stir at this gesture from the usually undemonstrative Fire Lord, but she ignored the whispers. Lin was returning the hug, her armour digging into Izumi's shoulder, her arms tight around the Fire Lord's neck.

"Are you okay?" Izumi asked.

Lin pulled back, but her hands still clasped Izumi's forearms. "I need to talk to you." 

"Lin--"

"Please." 

Izumi nodded, then resumed her formal entry into the city, flanked by her own guards and Republic City metalbenders. Lin fell a few steps behind, letting Izumi take the lead before photographers appeared. It was dangerous to be together in public here, where reporters were less intimidated by protocol and the royal guards. It hadn't been so bad when they were young -- they were in their twenties before they realised themselves -- but somehow the resemblance had grown as they aged. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Izumi saw President Reiko glance from her back to Lin. He said something to Tenzin. Izumi couldn't hear them, but Tenzin's body language was relaxed, amused, brushing it off.

There was no privacy on the drive from the airship port to City Hall, but the second they were done with the formal photos on the front steps -- Lin vanishing into the shadow of a pillar -- she grabbed Izumi and led her into an anteroom. Her face was pinched and pale, and there were shadows under her eyes. Izumi hated to let her down, and yet--

"My answer will be no," she said.

"She's my sister."

"I know." Izumi reached for Lin's hand, but she was withdrawing, crossing her arms. "But she's not mine." 

Lin gave a little snort, of disapproval or disappointment, Izumi couldn't tell.

"And even if she were," Izumi continued, "even if it was Iroh in Kuvira's prison, I'd still say no. I'm not dragging the Fire Nation into a war for personal reasons, Lin. Or any other reasons, if I can help it." 

"She'll come for you eventually. And the Air Nation, and the Water Tribes. We need to strike first." Lin was pacing. She looked like a caged animal.

"Even if I agreed with you, the Fire Nation is still bound by the Treaty of Aang."

"Then don't send an army. Give me a precision strike team. A couple of Yuyan Archers, some firebenders."

"And what? You'll go off and liberate Kuvira's camps?"

"Of course." 

"Lin, it's suicide. You'll be captured or killed, and as soon as she sees your badge, she'll use it as an excuse to declare war on Republic City. And the Fire Nation, if I send my citizens to go and get killed with you." Izumi sat down, gesturing for Lin to take a chair. 

Lin shook her head. 

"Be reasonable, Lin." 

This was the wrong thing to say. Lin had never been reasonable where family was concerned, whether it was cutting her sister out of her life, or, apparently, trying to form her own private army to rescue her. Now she rounded on Izumi.

"Listen to yourself," she spat. "You think I wouldn't do the same if it was you?"

"I know," said Izumi quietly. "And I love that about you, but I can't abandon principle for family."

Lin froze, and for a second, Izumi thought she might explode. Then she sank slowly into the chair, burying her face in her hands.

"It's okay," said Izumi. 

"It's not." Lin looked up at her. "I'm turning into Mom."

"Don't be ridiculous. Toph wouldn't have bothered asking."

Something like a smile touched Lin's face. Izumi leaned forward, putting her arms around her half-sister.

It helped that they had been best friends long before they figured out who Lin's father was. Izumi was the eldest by sixteen days. Lin had always been part of her life, a companion every summer, a correspondent the rest of the year. 

All they had wanted was a normal family. One normal family each, not a tangled mess of Beifongs and old Earth Kingdom money at one end, and Mai's calculating and ambitious Ozai-supporting family at the other. And in the middle, Zuko, not to mention the whole edifice of the Fire Nation monarchy. 

Izumi loved and admired her parents, but she preferred to forget the memory of their faces as they admitted that, yeah, they had kind of had a thing with Toph, and she certainly didn't mean to become pregnant, but, well, there it was. And she was determined to do it all on her own, without locking her poor kid into the metal box of life as an acknowledged royal bastard -- and her career, and Zuko's reign, and the whole United Republic concept were too fragile to withstand the sort of scandal that would explode ...

They were careful, the half-sisters. They avoided photographers when they were together, because they had similar jawlines and cheekbones, and somehow, being around Izumi made Lin's occasional resemblance to Ursa and Azula more obvious. And people saw what they expected, and told Lin she was the spitting image of Poppy Beifong. The scars helped, and the scowl, and the bright green eyes, and the fact that Lin never, ever wore red.

There was a knock at the door. 

"One moment," Izumi called. "Lin--"

"I'm fine." She straightened, her jaw set. "But I'm going to keep arguing."

"Of course you will." Izumi stood up, straightening her robes. "Just don't do anything stupid."

Lin smiled. But she made no promises. 

After the meeting broke up, while the Avatar was shouting at Prince Wu, Tenzin said quietly, "Is Lin all right?"

Izumi had spent the first half of her life thinking she was an only child. She had grown up with ideas about sibling loyalty and trust that, she realised after her kids were born, actual siblings might have knocked out of her. 

She swallowed, pushing aside the image of Lin dead or captured, and the knowledge that, if the worst happened, she wouldn't be able to do for Lin what Lin was no doubt planning to do for her other sister. 

"She's worried," Izumi said. Her aunt had taught her to lie. She was very good at it. "But I don't think she's going to do anything stupid." 

 

end


End file.
